BURGLED Suffolk shop owners were forced to trade from their garage today after thieves raided their store as they slept.Scenes of Crime officers scoured the Old Barn Stores and Post Office, Somersham, for evidence as the shop owners did their best to carry on with business as normal.

By LISA BAXTER

crime reporter

lisa.baxter@ecng.co.uk

BURGLED Suffolk shop owners were forced to trade from their garage today after thieves raided their store as they slept.

Scenes of Crime officers scoured the Old Barn Stores and Post Office, Somersham, for evidence as the shop owners did their best to carry on with business as normal.

Cliff Foulkes-Flint, 55, told how he woke at 3.30am to get something from the shop only to find the floor covered in glass from the door window burglars had smashed to get in.

"We live behind it and didn't hear anything," he said, adding that neither he, his wife, nor their 16-year-old daughter had heard the family's two dogs bark during the night.

The till had been taken and cigarettes from the store were missing.

A paperboy found the dumped cash register lying in a muddy field on his way to work hours later, Mr Foulkes-Flint added.

Pam Foulkes-Flint, 51, told how she and her husband – who has had the store for five years – were determined to go on trading today despite the raid.

"We can't afford not to," she said as she sold the morning papers from the garage.

"It's a hard slog," she said of the retail trade. "We're under threat, all village stores are. I just wish the people who did these sort of things realised how difficult it is.

"We work from 4.30am to 7.30pm or 8pm, and this is what happens. It's just devastating. We're always aware, we're always on our guard. It's a terrible situation to be in, when you hear about all these different raids."

Anyone with information about the burglary at the Main Road store should contact Stowmarket CID on 01473 383390.

n Mendlesham raid, See Page Five